Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and accounts for half of the world’s forty million blind. 90% of the world’s cataract blind live in the developing world, and continue to live a life of needless blindness because they cannot afford or access surgery.
The Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation was founded by world renowned ophthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit and myself. Since the beginning we have made it our mission to cure needless blindness across the developing world. With the help of many dedicated partner hospitals, our committed team and a lot of determination we have successfully cured over 17,000 people.
We currently do not have any plans to stop. With our team currently spread across both Nepal and Bhutan, we are well on our way to reaching our goal of curing 300,000 to 500,000 people by 2030.
We are heavily focused on improving accessibility of surgery within extremely marginalised communities. Those living in such communities are often completely isolated from the rest of the world and many of the necessary resources needed to have healthy eyesight. Intervening and giving those the sufficient care needed has allowed individuals to restart their lives and live a prosperous life.
Patients Revisited
One patient, Murathi Parsi was living with cataracts in both eyes and had lost her vision entirely. In March of 2021, the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation visited her village to test members of her community for blindness. Here it was discovered the Murathi needed sight correcting surgery as soon as possible. Her life changing surgery was performed by Dr Sanduk Ruit who has cured thousands of needless blindness all over the world.
Over a year later, the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation team paid a visit to Murathi to see how she had adapted to having her sight restored. She was excited to discuss her contributions to her family and community. She explained that she can now fetch her own water, prepare food and grow vegetables.
Seeing how the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundations intervention changed Murathi’s life for the better has encouraged us further to cure as many people as we can.
Early on, we realised that there was a distinct link between extreme poverty and blindness, especially in the developing world. In many rural communities across the world, people needlessly suffer from blindness — especially cataracts. This often leads to the descent into poverty, creating a life of hardship for those affected. Many people across small, isolated communities already struggling to make ends and the addition of blindness makes it so much worse.
Being stuck in an endless cycle of poverty is something that the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation aims to end. We are committed to ensuring that the first of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals comes to frution. The goal is to end all extreme poverty everywhere. Whilst this may seem like an impossible task, it is our job to assist wherever we can and we believe that starts by curing blindness.
For more information about blindness and Tej Kohli visit TejKohli.com and The Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation!
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